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Joseph Had A Diffferent Call At Running Back

December 22nd, 2011

Remember the heralded “three-headed-monster” plan at running back for opening day of the 2009 season?

The Bucs were going to run an unorthodox 2-2-1 rotation in the backfield with Derrick Ward, Cadillac Williams and Earnest Graham sharing series as the feature back. Of course, that wacky plan never materialized, and Graham finished 2009 with a mere 14 carries. Greg Olson bumped up Graham to 20 carries last year before he got a more prominent role this season.

Speaking Monday on the Buccaneers Radio Network, Davin Joseph said Graham would have been his top running back all three years.

“He was an every down back. And really, sometimes people forget about Earnest Graham. People forget about how good he really is. Because, for whatever reason, sometimes somebody else comes along and they want [that guy] to carry the ball,” Joseph said. “If it was up to me, Earnest Graham would have been carrying the ball for the last three seasons, hands down. But he is a utility player. He can do just about everything a running back should/can do and does everything well. There’s not really anything he can’t do. And LeGarrette’s getting to that stage where he can really be a utility back. It just takes a while.”

Joe found Joseph’s take interesting considering LeGarrette Blount had a 1,000 yards last season and Cadillac Williams was a such an inspirational figure in the locker room.

Graham has always been better than Carnell Williams, with exception to the first 4 games of 2005. He was always more powerful, always had better vision, always blocked better, and always caught the ball better. This isn’t the first time the best player hasn’t seen the field enough.

Sounds like there is a good offensive lineman complaining about the Coridantor and his decisions. Could that effect play? If a guy is making substitutions and calling plays that a veteran O Line don’t agree with. Could that spark turmoil? As a fan coming into this year I expected the Offense to carry a Defense with more than its share of Rookies. As we all have seen, that hasn’t happened.

Graham can block and catch passes better than Blount. Blount is by far the better runner. I’d still take Blount on all three downs than switch to Graham on 3rd. Graham is a solid spell back when Blount needs a break.

Earnest Graham was completely wasted here in Tampa. Our genius coaching staff of Raheem and Olsen refused to give him carries when he had proven he could run the ball. Cadillac and Ward were not doing it for us. When they finally gave Graham the ball at the beginning of this season, he had a 100+ yard game for us. He looked great. Then he got injured. Just imagine…..if they hadn’t been so stupid and had given him the ball way back, we might not have been 3-13 in ’09!

Instead they just put him at fullback. I really don’t know how Graham stays so positive……cause if I were him I’d be pissed off at the team for taking away my career like that.